Tequilita tops Obeah Stakes

Apparently there is no shortage of stakes-quality fillies and mares who want to race 1 1/8 miles, as a full gate of 12 has been entered for the $100,000 Obeah Stakes at Delaware Park on Saturday. The field includes two Kentucky shippers, plus four from Maryland, three from Pennsylvania, two from New Jersey, and a member of the home team.

In 2016, I’m a Chatterbox, who was based at Delaware with Larry Jones, pulled off an Obeah/Delaware Handicap sweep. The $750,000 Del Cap will be run at 1 1/4 miles on July 14.

Favoritism in the Obeah will come down to Tequilita and Fuhriously Kissed. Power of Snunner, who won the race last year over eventual Del Cap runner-up Martini Glass, will have to overcome post 12 if she is to defend her title.

Tequilita is trained by Michael Matz and owned and bred by his wife, Dorothy Alexander Matz. Tequilita is by Union Rags, with whom Matz won the 2012 Belmont Stakes.

The Obeah will be Tequilita’s first race outside of graded company in eight starts dating back to her 2017 victory in the Grade 2 Forward Gal. Her other graded score came last September in the Grade 3 Charles Town Oaks.

Tequilita comes into the Obeah off a rallying third-place finish to Pacific Wind and Highway Star in the Grade 2 Ruffian, a mile race at Belmont Park. Pacific Wind finished fourth in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps last Saturday. A day earlier, Highway Star was second in the Grade 3 Bed o’ Roses.

“She’s been facing some pretty tough horses,” Matz said. “This is a good race to take a step back.”

Nine furlongs is a question mark for Tequilita. Although the Charles Town Oaks is a two-turn race, it and the Forward Gal are both run at seven furlongs, a distance Tequilita is yet to win beyond.

In the two longest races of her career, Tequilita finished second in the 1 1/16-mile Gulfstream Park Oaks last year, a race before she ran seventh in the 1 1/8-mile Kentucky Oaks.

“We’ve wanted to stretch her out this year as a 4-year-old,” Matz said. “I think she’ll get the distance. We’ll find out. I would have liked to have found something at a mile or 1 1/16 miles, but this is what we have right now.”

Fuhriously Kissed, who will ship in from Churchill Downs for owner Ron Paolucci and trainer Anthony Quartarolo, will certainly get the distance. Her hurdle is not to drop too far back early.

A $62,500 claim three starts back at Gulfstream, Fuhriously Kissed finished third in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom in her next start. In her most recent start, she ran very well in the Pimlico slop to be third going 1 1/8 miles in the Grade 3 Allaire duPont Distaff.

Mannerly, who races for Stonestreet Stables and trainer Brendan Walsh, will be in from Keeneland. A 4-year-old daughter of Unbridled’s Song, she enters off a third-level optional-claiming score and is in search of her first stakes win.

“This year, she has gotten a lot stronger, her form has been very progressive, and I still think she has a bunch of improvement in front of her,” Walsh said.

Locally based You Know Too, who has a 3-1-0 record from five starts at Delaware, will be making her first start at 4. She is trained byMichael Gorham.